How are Pierce County hospitals affected by the tech outage? Here’s what we know

Update as of 6 p.m.: MultiCare said in a statement: “We continue to work to fully restore our systems,” and that they “have restored our core patient care systems and continue to focus on critical patient care functions.”

Initial post: A global technological outage disrupted hospital computer systems in Pierce County Friday.

The issue began when a cybersecurity firm called CrowdStrike deployed a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows. Crowdstrike provides software to thousands of companies worldwide, according to the Associated Press.

The IT outage disrupted businesses worldwide, including hospitals and airports, with flights being canceled at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, according to a King 5 report.

Crowdstrike said on their website Friday that the issue has been identified, isolated and they have deployed a fix to the outage. Crowdstrike is operating normally and they are working with impacted customers to restore all systems.

All of the computer systems at MultiCare hospital facilities, including Tacoma General Hospital, have been affected. Virginia Mason Franciscan Health facilities, including St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, were also affected.

A MultiCare spokesperson said they were working to bring their systems up while minimizing disruption to patient care and system operations. Their emergency departments and Indigo urgent cares remained open.

The spokesperson said they were working Friday afternoon to get answers to The News Tribune’s follow-up questions about what patients can expect from the outage, if they should bring physical medical records to appointments, and whether their systems are now up and running.

Virginia Mason Franciscan Health said on their website that their clinic and hospital locations remained open, and that some scheduled appointments may be impacted.

“Patients will be contacted directly if their appointments are affected,” the hospital said. “We continue to provide safe, high-quality care to our patients and thank everyone for their patience as our teams take immediate action to restore impacted systems.”

Among others affected by the outage, Pierce County government personnel have had minor impacts, according to communications director Libby Catalinich.

Their public records request portal was not available online Friday morning, but Catalinich said it was back up as of 11 a.m. The sewer billing system was out for a bit, but it’s also working again. Their internal system for tracking IT issues was also impacted.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.